Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
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Western Mich
Baseball Wraps Up WMU Series With Split
4/23/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 23, 2000
MOUNT PLEASANT--The Central Michigan University baseball team wrapped up its weekend series against Western Michigan University with a doubleheader split on Sunday afternoon at Theunissen Stadium.
The Chippewas cruised to a 10-5 win in the opening game but dropped the nightcap by a 4-2 count. The Chippewas are now 27-11 overall and 10-4 in the Mid-American Conference while Western is 17-19 overall and 6-10 in the MAC.
Central scored nine unanswered runs en route to the victory in the opening game.
CMU took a commanding 5-0 advantage with two runs in the first and three runs in the second. Jake Sanborn (Grand Ledge/Sr.) and Mike Galloway (St. Thomas, Ontario/Fr.) each had RBI singles in the first while Scott Pieratt (Mount Pleasant/Sr.) and Sanborn blasted back-to-back home runs in the second inning. Pieratt's was a two-run homer while Sanborn's was a solo shot.
The Chippewas increased their lead to lead to 9-0 with one run in the third and three runs in the fourth. Mike Gates (Canton/Fr.) scored in the third on a balk while in the fourth, Shaun Gragg (Grant/Sr.) walked to score Sanborn and Jason Helps (Wyoming, Ontario/Jr.) hit a single that scored a pair.
Western Michigan made the score 9-4 with three runs in the fifth and one run in the sixth. Central added an insurance run in the sixth to make it 10-4 when Gragg slammed a solo home run. The Broncos rounded out the scoring with a run in the seventh.
Starter Adam Bolthouse (Spring Lake/Sr.) picked up the win to improve his record to 4-3 on the year. He went five innings and gave up eight hits and four runs while striking out two. Pete Nemeth (Midland/Sr.) came on in relief to pitch the final two innings. He gave up two hits and one run and struck out three.
Sanborn hit two-for-two with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored to lead the CMU offense. Helps and Gragg each added a pair of RBI.
Game two featured a strong pitching matchup between WMU's Matt Vriesenga and Central's Dan Schell (Mount Pleasant/Sr.).
Vriesenga shut down the Chippewas, holding them to just four hits and two runs on the day. The only runs he surrendered were solo home runs by Sanborn and Helps.
The Broncos took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and held Central off the scoreboard until Sanborn's home run in the fourth inning that made it 2-1.
Western scored a run in the fifth on a throwing error to increase its lead to 3-1. Helps homered in the fifth to close the gap to 3-2 but WMU added another run in the sixth to secure the win.
Schell took the loss for the Chippewas. He went the distance giving up five hits and four runs (three earned) while striking out five.
CMU's only hits came from Sanborn, Helps, Galloway and Tim Bullinger (Jackson/So.).
Central is back in action on April 25 when it faces Northwood in a single game at Theunissen Stadium beginning at 3 p.m.
